The diary of two novice gardeners and allotmenteers

Tag Archive: harvest

We had a good couple of hours at the plot today. All the tomatoes are now in place in the lean to. The courgette plants are in their bed. Rob earthed up the potatoes which had put on a lot of growth following the torrential rain yesterday. We also topped up the potato bags. We came home with a cabbage, some spring onions and a bunch of raddish.

Our squash harvest has been better than we anticipated. We had low germination but those plants that did make it have given us plenty enough fruit. Even our favourite butternut squash has been prolific with more fruits still growing on the plants.

It’s that time of year again. Time to pick the fruit and make the jams and jellies. To date I have made four jars of red gooseberry, one of yellow gooseberry and six jars of blackcurrant. I have already used up all my saved jars and freezer boxes and there is still a load to pick. I think I may have to invest in some bought jars but they are so expensive to buy the decision is yet to be made.

We have had weeks of hot sunny weather meaning we have had to do a marathon with the watering cans but the results have been good with lots of salad, vegetables and strawberries to eat and freeze. This has been a very good year for cauliflower and cabbage but the peas have been few and far between as have the early carrots. At home the roses have been good and the fruit trees are showing a bit of fruit too but all could have been better with a little rain.

We have planted the last of the leeks Real now. It was a disappointing germination and only fifteen plants have gone in out of forty seeds. The runner beans are forming with the Scarlet Emperor being the first to show. The sweet peas are a picture and smell lovely. The squash plants are romping away now with the exception of our favourite the butternut, which, for some reason, did not germinate well. We have picked loads of strawberries but again they have suffered from the lack of water. The fruit cage is full of currants and berries ready to be harvested and frozen or turned into jam. All I need is time.

Once again I have brought home a large bowl of strawberries and a couple of massive butterhead lettuces. I also managed to get enough potatoes Sharps Express for a meal tonight. The potatoes have been slow to grow as we had a cold start to the season followed by a very long dry period. The tops are looking green, lush and healthy but few potatoes up to now which is bad news in one way but good news for my belly because I can’t resist freshly dug potatoes.

We surprised even ourselves when we came home with two trays of goodies on our last visit to the plots. I gathered a few tomatoes from the lean to and have left the plants intact as they have quite a bit of fruit still green. I don’t suppose they will ripen but we will give them a chance. The last of the cucumber had shrivelled so those plants are ready to come down.

We brought home three cabbages, a Savoy and a Ballhead plus one red for pickling. One of the sprout plants had fallen over so we pulled it and harvested the sprouts. They were quite small but made a tasty meal. Brussel sprouts are a great source of vitamins A, C, and K. They contain iron, fibre, potassium, and B vitamins. They also contain folate, protein, and beta-carotene. Next I pulled four leeks which were ready to eat and a few sticks of Chard. The surprise find was a beautiful if small Romanesco. We are bringing the pumpkins home one at a time as they are heavy and they should make some tasty soup for us over the Winter with the left over flesh and seeds going to the chickens and ducks.

It has been good growing weather just lately. Warm and wet. The plants have loved it and we had a near miss from the Blight according to Blight watch which is wonderful. We popped to the plots this morning and dug up a good harvest of Kestrel Potatoes. We have already dug up and eaten some Swift and some Vivaldi, both of which were very good. Today we ate one of the cabbage Kilaxy and it too was a success. The soft fruit has been great this year. We have eaten loads, given loads away and the freezer is full too. The strawberries have been producing like mad as have the red currants, red and green gooseberries, black currants and rhubarb. I have found recipes for redcurrant tart and redcurrant jelly and am planning to have a try at them next week.

We brought home the first of the courgette, a few more red and white onions, peas, broad beans, pak choi, spring onions, carrots and red lettuce. The difficult thing is keeping up with the eating.

Today was Rob’s 40th birthday and we had a great day. The boys bought him some new tools, a fork, a spade and a hoe so he was really pleased. We went down to the allotment to test them out. Rob dug up a few more rows of potatoes and the yield was terrible. Most of them were honeycombed and rotten. There are still loads to dig up but I know his heart is not in it as he knows they will be no good. On the positive side we did come home with quite a bit of stuff. A small white cabbage, broad beans, runner beans, Barlotti beans, beetroot, parsnips and tomatoes. I picked quite a few cobs from the sweetcorn, both the larger Tender and Sweet and the baby corn. They both seem ready so I shall harvest the rest soon and put them in the freezer.

Last night was the Wollescote show and we had a nice evening. Rob won a hip flask in the raffle and bought himself a birthday cake in the auction. We bumped into Charmaine and Louis Redding who I have known for some time and who have just taken on plot 1. They seem really keen and have already dug over the plot and tidied it up no end.

Rob took his camera to the allotment and captured a few of the Marigolds on plot 18. The seeds he sowed over there have all done really well so that compensates in a way for the potatoes that we lost. We planted the raspberry plant that Cath and Gra gave us and harvested the damsons on the Merryweather tree at home. Hope to have enough for at least a couple of jars of jam next year though.

We spent a pleasant couple of hours at the plots this morning and I managed to tidy the two beds in front of the greenhouse and get some of the young brassica plants in there. The Chinese leaf that we had planted had gone to seed so I had planned to pull it up but instead cut of the seed heads and left the plant in place, planting brassicas in the gaps. They may come to something, they may not, we shall have to wait and see. A few of the pak choi seeds we put in have grown but there were a lot of gaps so I popped a few brassica plants in between them too. We covered the plants with the mesh tunnels and netting as the pigeons are still about. We brought a load of stuff back today; a white cabbage, carrots, runner beans (loads), borlotti beans, the last of the Charlotte potatoes, a large courgette and tomatoes. We gave the Chinese cabbage tops to the chickens so nothing was wasted. Every time we go down we pick the runner beans and although we love them and eat a lot I still have to freeze loads. I know that we shall eat them through the Winter and next year till the next crop but there still seem to be too many. I either need another freezer or more friends who like runner beans. The carrots we pulled today were our best yet. They were out of the carrot bin and were a mixture of Rainbow and Chantenay.

It has been a while since I wrote on the weblog but there hasn’t been much to report. The weather has gone from one extreme to another and there is a definite hint of Autumn in the air already. We are getting loads of runner beans every visit now and we have been amazed at how prolific the four courgette plants are. Every time we go to the plots we bring home a carrier bag full of beans and at least two courgettes which seem to grow overnight. We had never eaten courgettes before but luckily we do enjoy them aswell as being able to give some to family and friends. We continue to dig up the potatoes and it seems like about 50% are blight free so not as bad as we thought and we haven’t had to buy any. The tomatoes have produced a few fruit but on the whole both the tomatoes and the cucumbers have been very disappointing. We shall have to try harder next year.

The pumpkin plant that survived is now enormous with quite a few smallish fruit and one very large beautiful golden orb which Rob has sat on a piece of carpet and looks very grand. The butternut squash and the one surviving melon plant are growing slowly. The lettuce plants have been very nice but have come to an end before the tomatoes have got started so some problems in the planning there.

Both the baby corn and the big sweetcorn plants are thriving with cobs already swelling on the bigger plants so we are hoping for a good harvest from them.

We heard that we got 78 points in the local council competition but don’t really know what this means and so as we have received no congratulatory phone call we must assume that the judges did pop their heads into the lean to on that dreaded judgement day and we came out bottom of the class. Ah well.